


Will's Special Case

by galacticheroines



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, This is pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24647734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticheroines/pseuds/galacticheroines
Summary: Nico Di Angelo wakes up in the infirmary, set after Blood of Olympus. He wonders, not for the first time, what he's still doing there.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 2
Kudos: 94





	Will's Special Case

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a soft little thing I wrote while rereading the series. I've always imagined their relationship to happen slowly, and this is kind of the start of that. Hope you enjoy!!

It was Nico Di Angelo’s third day in the infirmary, and he still wasn’t totally sure what he was doing there. He had agreed, at Will Solace’s insistence, to spend the night after the end of the war. He could admit that he was badly bruised, and shaken up, and perhaps a bite of ambrosia or two wouldn’t hurt. But that was two days ago. Maybe if there had been a shortage of beds, or some other dire task he had to rush off to do, Nico would have fought just a little bit harder to go. 

Instead—he woke up on his side, unable to remember ever having fallen asleep. This place had that effect on him. It was like whatever was in the air—the medicines, or the herbs, or the smell from the strawberry fields wafting through the open windows—was making him want to close his eyes. He started to rise just as Kayla Knowles was passing his bed. She was holding a clipboard in one hand and tapping a pen on it with the other. 

She looked up at Nico, one eyebrow raised. “Nico Di Angelo? What are you still doing here?” Nico couldn’t respond. His mouth felt like sandpaper, and besides...what was he still doing here?

She flipped a few pages, her eyes darting back and forth, before a smile broke out on her face. “Oh, right. Will’s special case. Carry on.” And she kept walking. 

As if on cue, Will entered the infirmary wing, balancing a tray in his hands. He set it on Nico’s nightstand. Nico’s eyes drifted toward it, but there was no need—Will announced it all. 

“Morning, sunshine!” He greeted. Nico found the name deeply ironic, but he bit back his remark. “I brought your daily vitamin. I also brought breakfast: a black coffee and a cornetto.” The way he pronounced it, corn-et-oh, sounded so unnatural in his mouth that Nico bit back another laugh. “I read that Italians prefer their coffee black and start the day with one of these.” He gestured at the cornetto. 

Nico only stared. Will grimaced, “But...but you haven’t lived in Italy for 80 years, so this is probably totally irrelevant for you.” 

Nico reached out for the cornetto and took a bite. Almond. He took another bite. 

Will’s smile was back instantly. Nico mumbled a thank you. He sipped the coffee, which tasted horribly bitter, but Nico didn’t tell Will that. Instead, he breathed in, and muttered: “Kayla came by.” 

The smile wavered again. Nico thought it must be exhausting to alternate so quickly between emotions. He really only had one. “Yeah?” Will asked, though he seemed suddenly nervous. 

Nico took another sip. “She seemed surprised that I was still here. She called me your “special case.”” 

Will didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to. So Nico continued: “Have you been keeping me here for no reason?” He tried to keep the rising anger out of his voice 

“I wouldn’t say no reason. I mean, a little TLC never hurt anyone.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.” He was fidgeting with his hands, a nervous reaction that Nico had seen on plenty of demigods. “I just didn’t want to discharge you, and have you immediately leave camp again. I wouldn’t see you again for weeks.” He muttered: “months, even.” 

Nico didn’t know what to make of that. He had never thought of himself as having friends—at least, not in the way that other people seemed to. He had people he talked to, sure, but someone who actually wanted him around?

Will reached out to clasp Nico’s hand. As their skin brushed, however, Will jolted backwards, stammering: “Oh, sorry, sorry. I know you don’t like to be touched. That was so stupid of me. You just get me so flustered.” 

Nico hadn’t even registered the movement. He hadn’t been fast enough to peel his hand away. He wondered for the second time whether the medicines in the infirmary were making his head woozy.

“Flustered?” It took a moment, but then: “Oh, right. ‘Cause of the whole death thing.” 

Will seemed confused. “What? Gods, no. I’m not scared of that. Death is a natural part of life.” He corrected himself. “I mean, death is a good thing. It makes what we do on Earth more meaningful.” 

Nico agreed, of course, but he wasn’t used to that reaction. He expected people to jump back from him, to distrust him, to fear him. He knew that his body temperature ran cold and that his face had an unsettling skeleton-look. He figured that the all black clothing and the long hair probably didn't help. He didn’t expect...whatever this was. He narrowed his eyes at Will.

Will continued. “I mean flustered like...” He stared out the window, as if the answer lay just past Nico’s sight. He laughed to himself, but Nico didn’t understand what was funny. “Like the kind of flustered that makes me ask Malcolm to borrow a book on Venetian History and Culture, without realizing that you haven’t lived in Venice in about 80 years.” 

Nico laughed. That’s the second time today, a voice inside his head said, and it’s not even noon. Around Will, Nico felt like that was totally normal.

“There are easier ways to get to know me.” Nico said, his eyes leveling at Will. He took the last bite of his cornetto.

“Right, because you’re so forthcoming with personal information.” Nico’s laugh shocked him—though really, by now, it shouldn’t have—so that it soon morphed from laughing to choking on that last piece of the almond cornetto. 

Will brought a glass of water into Nico’s hands. “Drink, drink. If you choke, I’ll have justifiable means to keep you here longer.” 

Nico sipped gratefully. Once the coughs had subsided, and he was once again looking at Will as the latter sat so comfortably on the stool, the sun through the window just hitting the stop of his head...he thought maybe, he could stay here willingly. 

Nico sat up further. He took a deep breath and reached his hand over to Will’s. When their hands met, Nico was surprised by how warm Will’s was. If Will was bothered by Nico’s perpetual chill, he didn’t say anything. 

Will was once again smiling goofily, though Nico had nothing spiteful to say about that. “I’m sick of laying in this bed all day.”

When Nico and Will slipped out the back door of the infirmary, Nico could have sworn he saw Kayla suddenly look away, occupying herself with some vials and pretending not to have seen a thing.


End file.
